Aston Villa players wear the 'Kick it out' t-shirts during warm-up prior to the Barclays Premier League match between Fulham and Aston Villa at Craven Cottage

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Aston Villa have reacted angrily to a press report that players were involved in a protest against the Kick It Out anti-racism campaign on the pitch against Fulham on Saturday.

The Mail On Sunday claimed that certain Villa players removed their Kick It Out t-shirts early and threw them to the ground "in disgust", a report denounced by the team as "inaccurate, misleading and distorted".

An Aston Villa spokesman said: "All Aston Villa players took to the pitch for the pre-game warm-up on Saturday wearing Kick It Out t-shirts.

"As is usual practice the players were split into two groups during that warm-up to play possession football. In order to be distinguishable one group removed their Kick It Out t-shirts."

"This was not a protest. There was no controversy," the spokesman added. "Aston Villa are particularly disappointed with this irresponsible journalism, given that the journalist in question had the full facts of the matter at his disposal before this article went to press: he even asked a question regarding the issue at Saturday's post-match press conference."

The team went on to print the exchange between the Mail On Sunday and Paul Lambert.

Mail on Sunday: "Can you confirm they meant no disrespect to the Kick It Out campaign?"

Paul Lambert: "No, not at all. We play a possession thing and that will only have been what that was.

"There was no disrespect to it whatsoever. We train and then five lads wear one shirt and five wear another. They backed it, the football club backs it to the hilt."

The spokesman said that Aston Villa took their commitment to embracing diversity and promoting equality very seriously.

He said: "These efforts have been recognised by Kick It Out when Aston Villa became only the second club to achieve the highest level of the Kick It Out Equality Standard, an achievement which we are justly proud of."

Aston Villa have written to the Mail On Sunday calling for an apology to the club and for the article to be corrected. They have also asked the newspaper to make a donation to Kick It Out and to publish a new feature highlighting the work of the campaign.